“… we all need a little bit more revolutionary imagination… maybe it’s impossible but we’re gonna try anyway”
On Sunday, 1st June, I watched the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) launch the Madleen, a civilian ship that is carrying essential humanitarian aid that set sail towards Gaza from Catania, Italy. On board are 12 international human rights defenders from seven different countries, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Irish actor and activist, Liam Cunningham. While the cargo on board is ‘a drop in 5 oceans’ as Huwaida Arraf, a human rights lawyer noted, the sailing is in direct defiance of Israel’s illegal and genocidal blockade and violation of international law.
The launch of the Madleen, comes just one month after Israeli drones bombed Conscience, another Freedom Flotilla aid ship, in international waters off the coast of Malta. Notable is that fifteen years ago, Israel carried out an unlawful and deadly attack on the Mavi Marmara, in which ten humanitarian volunteers were killed while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.
The sailing is a peaceful act of civil resistance and the crew of volunteers aboard Madleen are trained in nonviolence, “a refusal to surrender to silence, fear, or complicity. The siege on Gaza is maintained not just by Israeli firepower, but by global inaction. Despite the risks, we believe that direct, civil resistance still matters —that active solidarity, can shift the moral compass of the world. That is why Madleen sails… [it is a] shared belief that Palestinians deserve the same rights, freedom, and dignity as all people.”
This is a dangerous journey, not least in light of the fatal attacks at previous sailings, but also the threats directed to the lives of those on board from public figures such as US Senator Lindsey Graham.
Please pray with AMRI for their safe passage.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition calls on:
Governments to guarantee safe passage for Madleen and all humanitarian vessels
Media outlets to report on this mission with accuracy and integrity
People of conscience everywhere to reject silence and take action for Gaza
Why supporting the Madleen reflects on our humanity
“It’s impossible to have your eyes open, and not have your heart broken”
(Dr. Gabor Maté)
“There’s something called moral injury, and moral injury happens when you are watching something terrible happen and you can’t stop it, and you’re helpless in the face of it. As I said earlier, it’s impossible to have your eyes open and not to have your heart broken. So I hope your hearts are broken, and I hope that they are broken every day. Because what’s going on happens every day…
So look, here’s what I would say to you. It’s true what I said, that all the speaking that I’ve done or other people have done internationally, all the advocacy that you may have done, all the letter writing and petitions that you may have signed have not saved a single finger of a single Gazan child.
Some might say that we have failed.
Don’t believe that for a second. You have not failed.
The very fact that in the face of all the propaganda and all the withholding of truth, so many people’s hearts are broken, that’s a sign. That’s a tribute to humanity.
If your heart is broken, that’s a tribute to you.
Even if you feel broken-hearted, and helpless, and hopeless, and in despair, don’t let that get to you, because you have a larger goal here, which is to contribute to the light and the truth in the world as best you see it.
That is a long-term struggle.
It’s a long-term calling, and all of us can contribute to it”.
Dr. Gabor Maté
